Spyware, viruses, & security forum: Avg 8.0

http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2008/04/taming-avg-free-version-8.html

I recently upgraded to AVG 8.0 and found that the installation trashed all my entries in spam white and blacklist so now I have to start again and the route to get to edit the lists is very tortuous, much more convoluted than 7.5. Black mark here
I find the interface a lot more fussy and more time consuming and if you try turning something off it complains indefinitely. I'm on a home network behind a hardware firewall so I don't really need any additional software for this, but foe peace of mind I have allowed AVG firewall.
Also, I've recently got an error with a disabled Link scanner which AVG have not offered a solution for yet save to search the FAQs which I have already done to no avail.
Overall, not too impressed with this issue. Maybe I should be looking for an alternative ?

Peterb

disabling the link scanner and found the IEXPLORER.EXE issue to still be there, so I did as you suggested before I even saw your post about this....uninstall AVG 8.0 and reinstall without the link scanner, and still had the problem, so I just finally after many years of using AVG quite happily uninstalled it for good and installed AVAST instead. It's also free and has given me no problems....in fact the first scan I did with it actually found six items in old files on a spare harddrive that AVG had never discovered, including a few saved websites in my Favorites.

TONI H

if you've been using AVG 7.5, why don't you trust 8.0? go for it man, i've been using it since day one & it have great & new features! you worry too much

I downloaded AVG 8 (on XP Pro) 2 weeks ago and it was running great. It found a virus and it wasn't until I sent that to the vault that I noticed all the warnings that had come up with my scans, and continue to do so......over 24,000 each time, whether they're old or new ones I have no idea. I have my advanced settings at 10% disc space and am set for 1000 entries, which I believe is what is suggested. I have been very slowly emptying my vault to make room for these 'warnings', but after 2 weeks of 24 thousand plus you can imagine how long it's taking. They are all active X and the ones I've deleted so far have caused no problems. My question....should I reset the 10% disc space (I have lots available) and/or raise the amount of entries to 25,000 if it even goes that high? Or should I just delete past scans with warnings? AVG sure doesn't tell you much about what to do with these warnings and I'm confused....Thanks!!

Yes I do have SpywareBlaster as well as Advanced Windowcare and have noticed that each day when I check them, there are unprotected items, which I'd never seen previous to installing AVG 8. I read the thread and see I'm not the only one with this problem and that AVG is going to make some changes?
In the meantime, what would you suggest I do with all these warnings, delete them? Should I get a virus, I wouldn't even be able to send it to the virus vault, it's always full of active X warnings. Thanks for your quick response.

Hmmmm.....my cookie scanner is and always was unchecked. I'm still not sure whether or not I should just delete all the warnings, since they're all active X?

I have used AVG for over 6yrs. In the past, it has always been easy to upgrade. AVG 8 is frustrating. The nag screen is the worst.
This version drags on my computer. I used for 1 week, giving myself a chance to see if I could find solutions. I have since un-installed and went back to 7.5, which beats the newer 8.0 hands down. I am looking at other free anti-virus and think that I will go to with Avast. I do not like the 8.0 and would not tell me friends to go with AVG as I have in the past

First, I wasn't happy about not being able to opt out of the crappy toolbar from Yahoo since I am perfectly happy with Google....so I chose to uncheck the toolbar just so I didn't have to look at it knowing it was using up real estate at the same time.

Then I started realizing frequently I wasn't able to get clicked links to work from my email program (OE) or open a separate instance of IE either. Nothing would happen after the click. I was consistently required to open Task Manager and end process for a number of IEXPLORER.EXE before it would work again.

I then noticed that even after I 'closed' an IE window, the entry would remain in my taskbar even though the window itself was gone...and right clicking the window entry to choose 'close' did nothing. Again, Task Manager to the rescue.

Then I noticed that upon shutting down or rebooting the computer also had instances of error windows stating that IEXPLORER.EXE was not responding, and I would have to 'end task' again and again before shutting down the computer.

After doing a google search on this, I discovered that AVG 8.0 has a new default 'feature' called LINKSCANNER and it is running in the background so heavily supposedly protecting you from phishing sites, etc. that it hangs IEXPLORER constantly. I disabled the Linkscanner but also had to delete the IEXPLORER.EXE entry in the Windows/Prefetch folder before these problems stopped happening.

I've also noticed (so has my sister since she was having the same issues on her computers after installing AVG 8.0) that deleting the prefetch entry has now resulted in our computers booting up quickly when in fact they were at a snail's crawl after installing AVG 8.0

Thinking seriously about dumping AVG 8.0 and going with ASquared Free again.....

TONI H